Wednesday, July 20, 2011

TeamDirection Outlook Basecamp Integration-- TOBI

A quick note to let everyone know a new product has been introduced to the TeamDirection stable-- TOBI. As you might surmise from the title, TOBI connects MS Outlook 2007 & 2010 to Basecamp.




You give TOBI the URL to your Basecamp dashboard and TOBI let's you select which projects to bring into Outlook. Once selected, all the Milestones, Todo Items, Comments and Attachments will be visible within Outlook.

Of course, we didn't stop there. TOBI supports both instant updates and automatic synchronization. Instant updates happen when you make a change to a connected Outlook item. For example, if you mark a task as complete in Outlook, then the corresponding Basecamp item will be marked completed as well-- immediately.

Conversely, if you update an item in Basecamp via your web browser, TOBI periodically checks for changes in Basecamp. The interval is configurable but the default is every 15 minutes. When a change is spotted, then the Outlook task is updated.

There are many more features like enhanced data and 'smart' collision resolution that we will be covering in the days ahead. In the meantime, if you'd like to check TOBI out here is a 'Getting Started' page and the install page.